CBS’ ‘Late Late Show’ Replacement ‘After Midnight’ Names Host, Creative Team

Rick Porter
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CBS is putting the pieces in place for its next late night show.

The network has named a host and hired the key creative team for After Midnight, which is set to take over the 12:35 a.m. ET spot in early 2024. The show is inspired by Comedy Central’s comedic game show @midnight and getting a truth-in-titling name change.

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Comedian Taylor Tomlinson will host After Midnight. Tomlinson, who has two Netflix specials to her name, appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on Wednesday following the afternoon announcement of the creative team.

Jack Martin, a veteran of @midnight and currently showrunner of CBS’ game show Raid the Cage, and Eric Pierce (The Challenge: USA, Hollywood Game Night) will be showrunners on the new series, which comes from CBS Studios, Stephen Colbert’s Spartina Industries and Funny or Die. Writer and comedian Jo Firestone (The Tonight Show, Joe Pera Talks With You) is the head writer.

“We are thrilled to be reunited with our friends at Funny Or Die,” said Colbert, who’s an executive producer of After Midnight. “My hope is that, every night, After Midnight will be just as ridiculous as the internet is every day. Plus, the original @midnight aired after The Colbert Report, so welcoming this new show to 12:30 feels like coming home.”

Along with Martin, Pierce and Colbert, After Midnight’s executive producers are Spartina Industries president Carrie Byalick; The Late Show executive Tom Purcell; Evelyn McGee Colbert; James Dixon of Dixon Talent; Funny or Die’s Joe Farrell, Mike Farah, Whitney Hodack and Henry R. Muñoz III; and @midnight co-creator Jason U. Nadler.

“Funny Or Die is proud to partner once again with CBS Studios, Spartina Industries and our longtime friend and collaborator Stephen Colbert,” said Muñoz, Funny Or Die’s owner. “Now that we are all old enough to stay up until after midnight, I’m excited for this show to harness the power of comedy and laughter to bring us all together.”

CBS hit on a reboot of @midnight as a replacement for The Late Late Show With James Corden in early 2023, following the announcement that Corden was ending his tenure. Colbert’s Late Show returned to the air in early October after the end of the writers strike; CBS has lately been airing episodes of Byron Allen’s Comics Unleashed in the post-Late Show spot.

Comedy Central aired more than 600 episodes of @midnight from 2013-17. The show featured comedians riffing on internet and pop culture trends in a game-show format hosted by Chris Hardwick.

Nov. 1, 6:50 p.m. Updated with Taylor Tomlinson named as host of After Midnight.

This story was first published on Wednesday, Nov. 1 at 1 p.m.

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